Poland says ‘all traces lead to Russia’ being behind rail sabotage incidents – Europe live

Key events

Show key events only

Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature

Morning opening: 'All traces lead to Russia,' Poland says

Poland’s deputy prime minister and defence minister, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, said that looking at the rail sabotage incidents over the weekend in the broader context of hybrid threats facing European countries “all traces lead east, to Russia.”

Special forces and police investigate at the scene of a destroyed section of railway tracks on the Deblin-Warsaw route near the Mika railway station, central Poland. Photograph: Wojtek Jargiło/EPA

Speaking on Radio Zet this morning, he also confirmed media reports that investigators were looking at a device was found near the blast site which they believe may have been intended to capture “the explosion or observe the site” of the blast.

Kosiniak-Kamysz said that Poland and Europe faced “a state between war and peace, where we have attacks, acts of sabotage, disinformation on a gigantic scale on the internet, the destruction, or attempts at destruction, of critical infrastructure across the whole of Europe.”

On Monday night, public prosecutors in Poland said an investigation had opened “regarding acts of sabotage of a terrorist nature […] committed on behalf of a foreign intelligence service against the Republic of Poland.”

This morning the Polish government will convene its national security committee to discuss the next steps in its response to the rail incidents.

I will keep an eye on what comes out of it.

Elsewhere, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, meets the German prime minister, Friedrich Merz for talks in Paris, where they will be later joined by the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in Spain for talks with the country’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, before going to Turkey on Wednesday in a bid to reinvigorate peace talks to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Separately, senior representatives of the EU candidate countries meet in Brussels at the EU Enlargement Forum, and Danes go to the polls in local elections, as the centre-left could lose control of Copenhagen for the first time in the city’s electoral history.

There is lots for us to cover. I will bring you all the latest updates here.

It’s Tuesday, 18 November 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.

Good morning.